. Birds I have kept in years gone by : with original anecdotes and full directions for keeping them successfully . able isFringilla miens, for the summer plumage of the male reallyshines with a true metallic lustre. The Germans call it derStahlblaue Widafinh, oder der Atlas Vogel, and the French Le The female always, and the male when, out of colour, re-semble a hen Redpoll. A recent writer has stated that these birds breed freely incaptivity, and gives his readers to understand, without exactlysaying so in as many words, that they have nested in hisaviary: but Dr. Euss, in my opinion an incom
. Birds I have kept in years gone by : with original anecdotes and full directions for keeping them successfully . able isFringilla miens, for the summer plumage of the male reallyshines with a true metallic lustre. The Germans call it derStahlblaue Widafinh, oder der Atlas Vogel, and the French Le The female always, and the male when, out of colour, re-semble a hen Redpoll. A recent writer has stated that these birds breed freely incaptivity, and gives his readers to understand, without exactlysaying so in as many words, that they have nested in hisaviary: but Dr. Euss, in my opinion an incomparably higherauthority, says that breeding is very difficult, for after longyears of trial he only obtained one brood fDie Zuchtwng istausserordentlich schwer: ich habe lei jahrelangen Versuohen nureine Brut erlangt.) The food of these birds consists mainly of seeds, but theywill greedily devour all the insects they can get hold of, andseem to be especially partial to spiders and aphides; and itis possibly on account of the insufficient supply of this kindof food, that my Combassous made no attempt to THE C 0 5[ B A S S 0 U, The Giant Weaver. 163 I do not consider tliem hardy, and lost all I attempted tokeep during the moulting season; the reproduction of theirfeathers seeming to exhaust the birds, which died either during,or immediately after moult. Mr. Wiener, on the other hand, found this bird quitehardy, and ever lively and in good condition, so that Imust have been as exceptionally unfortunate with them, asMr. Gedney was with his Saffron Finches: however I didnot consider them sufficiently interesting to make it worth mywhile to try them a second time. The Combassou is a native of the western parts of Africa,and is especially abundant in Abyssinia, where it is said to■occupy the place of the Sparrow in this country. CHAPTER LVI. THE GIANT WEAVES. ONCE upon a time, several years ago, I saw an advertisementin the Exchange and Mart, to the effect that some onewante
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